Steve Carlton

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 4 in · 210 lb

BornDecember 22, 1944 · Miami, FL, USA

MLB debutApril 12, 1965

Final gameApril 23, 1988

Seasons24 (1965–1988)

St. Louis Cardinals 1965–1971; Philadelphia Phillies 1972–1985; Chicago White Sox 1986; Philadelphia Phillies 1986; San Francisco Giants 1986; Cleveland Indians 1987; Minnesota Twins 1987–1988

Percentile snapshot

1986 season — qualified pitchers

18.3

14.6

9.8

SHO

196

58.5

100

26.8

20.7

120

40.2

176.3

13.4

ERA

5.10

2.4

WHIP

1.599

2.4

K/9

6.12

63.4

FIP

4.72

8.5

FIP-

121.0

1.2

ERA+

77.4

sWAR

-0.5

1.2

of 83 qualified 1986 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

114.6

81.8

sWAR

87.2

99.9

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1965	15	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-130.6	-100.0	.000	0.6
1966	9	18	15	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	.267	.313	.267	.579	64.1	62.5	.274	1.0
1967	30	76	72	5	11	2	0	0	3	3	28	0	0	.153	.187	.181	.367	0.5	7.2	.177	2.7
1968	35	79	73	6	12	0	1	2	3	0	25	0	0	.164	.164	.274	.438	18.0	31.7	.200	2.3
1969	32	87	80	5	17	4	1	1	7	3	27	0	0	.213	.241	.325	.566	53.0	58.0	.261	7.0
1970	34	88	80	4	16	2	0	0	4	1	28	1	1	.200	.247	.225	.472	24.8	26.8	.227	3.9
1971	37	107	96	5	17	4	0	0	8	4	31	0	0	.177	.210	.219	.429	9.9	20.0	.205	2.9
1972	41	130	117	6	23	3	1	1	8	5	31	0	0	.197	.236	.265	.501	34.1	40.6	.237	10.7
1973	40	107	100	6	16	2	0	2	5	2	19	0	0	.160	.175	.240	.415	0.6	12.7	.190	2.5
1974	39	112	102	7	25	3	0	0	9	0	16	0	1	.245	.238	.275	.513	29.9	41.1	.236	5.0
1975	37	102	90	8	14	2	0	0	9	5	24	0	0	.156	.200	.178	.378	-4.8	4.4	.188	3.0
1976	35	102	92	5	20	1	0	0	6	1	24	0	0	.217	.242	.228	.470	27.1	33.6	.227	4.1
1977	36	110	97	7	26	4	0	3	15	2	20	0	0	.268	.282	.402	.684	74.4	79.8	.302	8.1
1978	34	93	86	7	25	3	1	0	13	3	14	0	0	.291	.311	.349	.660	84.2	85.0	.307	5.5
1979	36	101	94	9	21	3	0	0	10	3	17	1	0	.223	.253	.255	.508	33.0	38.1	.239	3.4
1980	38	111	101	7	19	1	0	0	6	1	21	0	0	.188	.190	.198	.388	-7.9	7.1	.180	8.1
1981	24	71	67	5	9	2	2	0	4	2	16	0	0	.134	.159	.224	.383	-7.5	6.9	.180	4.6
1982	38	109	101	8	22	4	0	2	8	0	13	0	0	.218	.218	.317	.535	40.2	48.0	.242	5.3
1983	37	105	97	9	19	5	0	0	1	2	20	0	0	.196	.212	.247	.460	20.5	28.2	.214	4.7
1984	34	89	84	8	16	2	0	1	10	2	20	0	0	.190	.209	.250	.459	20.0	28.3	.214	2.7
1985	16	31	28	2	5	1	0	0	3	1	8	0	0	.179	.200	.214	.414	3.8	14.9	.193	1.4
1986	32	47	45	4	9	1	0	1	8	1	7	0	0	.200	.217	.289	.506	30.1	38.0	.232	-0.5
1987	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.4
1988	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-1.3

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1965	15	2	0	0	0	0	0	27	7	8	21	3	25.0	2.52	1.400	7.56	3.60	96.9	147.2	0.6
1966	9	9	3	3	0	2	1	56	18	18	25	2	52.0	3.12	1.423	4.33	3.25	88.9	117.3	1.0
1967	30	28	14	9	1	11	2	173	64	62	168	10	193.0	2.98	1.218	7.83	2.59	78.5	110.4	2.7
1968	34	33	13	11	0	10	5	214	77	61	162	11	231.7	2.99	1.187	6.29	2.59	89.0	97.4	2.3
1969	31	31	17	11	0	12	2	185	57	93	210	15	236.3	2.17	1.176	8.00	2.94	81.9	165.1	7.0
1970	34	33	10	19	0	13	2	239	105	109	193	25	253.7	3.73	1.372	6.85	3.92	95.1	110.6	3.9
1971	37	36	20	9	0	18	4	275	108	98	172	23	273.3	3.56	1.365	5.66	3.51	97.9	100.8	2.9
1972	41	41	27	10	0	30	8	257	76	87	310	17	346.3	1.97	.993	8.06	2.14	60.1	180.0	10.7
1973	40	40	13	20	0	18	3	293	127	113	223	29	293.3	3.90	1.384	6.84	3.50	92.9	96.7	2.5
1974	39	39	16	13	0	17	1	249	104	136	240	21	291.0	3.22	1.323	7.42	3.33	88.5	117.0	5.0
1975	37	37	15	14	0	14	3	217	101	104	192	24	255.3	3.56	1.257	6.77	3.58	95.9	104.9	3.0
1976	35	35	20	7	0	13	2	224	88	72	195	19	252.7	3.13	1.172	6.95	2.95	82.9	113.5	4.1
1977	36	36	23	10	0	17	2	229	83	89	198	25	283.0	2.64	1.124	6.30	3.47	86.8	151.3	8.1
1978	34	34	16	13	0	12	3	228	78	63	161	30	247.3	2.84	1.177	5.86	3.70	103.5	125.9	5.5
1979	35	35	18	11	0	13	4	202	101	89	213	25	251.0	3.62	1.159	7.64	3.41	89.5	105.3	3.4
1980	38	38	24	9	0	13	3	243	79	90	286	15	304.0	2.34	1.095	8.47	2.41	64.6	159.8	8.1
1981	24	24	13	4	0	10	1	152	51	62	179	9	190.0	2.42	1.126	8.48	2.40	67.0	148.1	4.6
1982	38	38	23	11	0	19	6	253	102	86	286	17	295.7	3.10	1.147	8.71	2.44	67.4	116.8	5.3
1983	37	37	15	16	0	8	3	277	98	84	275	20	283.7	3.11	1.273	8.73	2.57	71.6	115.5	4.7
1984	33	33	13	7	0	1	0	214	91	79	163	14	229.0	3.58	1.279	6.41	3.20	87.9	101.7	2.7
1985	16	16	1	8	0	0	0	84	34	53	48	6	92.0	3.33	1.489	4.70	4.15	112.5	110.9	1.4
1986	32	32	9	14	0	0	0	196	100	86	120	25	176.3	5.10	1.599	6.12	4.72	121.0	77.4	-0.5
1987	32	21	6	14	1	3	0	165	97	86	91	24	152.0	5.74	1.651	5.39	5.51	121.1	79.1	-0.4
1988	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	20	18	5	5	5	9.7	16.76	2.586	4.66	10.06	248.5	24.2	-1.3

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

745

1,877

1,719

123

346

RBI

140

413

.2013

OBP

.2227

SLG

.2595

OPS

.4822

Pitching

G (P)

741

86th-most career G (P)

709

6th-most career GS

329

11th-most career W

244

14th-most career L

254

75th-most career CG

SHO

14th-most career SHO

5,217

9th-most career IP

SO (P)

4,136

4th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,833

2nd-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.215

264th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2468

328th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

7.13

191st-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	TB
1978-10-06	PHI @ LAD Gameday	4	2	2	0	1	4	5
1984-05-16	PHI @ LAD Gameday	3	2	2	0	1	4	5
1977-09-05	PHI @ PIT Gameday	4	2	2	0	1	2	5
1968-06-13	STL @ ATL Gameday	2	1	2	0	1	1	5
1976-08-24	PHI @ ATL Gameday	4	1	3	1	0	3	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1969-09-15	NYM @ STL Gameday	9.0	9	4	4	2	19	2
1982-06-09	CHC @ PHI Gameday	9.0	10	2	2	2	16	1
1967-09-20	STL @ PHI Gameday	8.0	8	3	3	3	16	0
1970-05-21	STL @ PHI Gameday	8.0	9	3	3	2	16	1
1981-09-16	PHI @ NYM Gameday	8.0	8	5	5	4	15	1

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1994 (BBWAA)

4× Cy Young Award1× Pitching Triple Crown1× Gold Glove10× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.